Mercedes ditched its traditional Silver theme in order to make the car lightweight.
The Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team has got quite an impressive history: winning eight constructors’ championship back-to-back, dominating the grid since 2013. But what happened in 2022 with the team? Why could Mercedes not match their own standard last season?
Just a solitary win is not something Mercedes, the eighth crown holder will ever settle for. Due to the spectacular history of the Silver Arrows, even after seeing their defeat in the past two years, fans are not yet done expecting high from the team. Despite criticism, Mercedes is getting hopes and prayers for a strong comeback. And look at how the team is, in fact, coming back stronger in black!
Now the question is, will the changed livery and evolution in the W13 will help Mercedes bring their best in W14? The 2023 season is not yet started. So, we cannot say for sure if Mercedes’s win-in-black era is back or not. The season’s pre-testings are something that gives a little idea about the car’s performance. But in 2023, only a single test run is allowed before the opening race weekends.
Mercedes Technical Director Explains The Impacts Coming From The Shortages Of Test Running
According to Mercedes technical director Mike Elliott, the shortage in pre-testing might cause problems. This may appear as a difficulty for Mercedes in terms of understanding the performance measurement of the new package that the team has launched in W14. Mike explained, “Team Mercedes never really got on top of the balance in the 2022 season. All the normal work we do at the beginning of the season could not happen because of the problems we were trying to rectify”. Meanwhile, the technical director showed concern about the least number of test runs they got in the 2023 world championship. He believes, “Just three days of testing this season has two big impacts.”
Explaining the impacts, Mike suggested that the very first impact coming due to the less testing is in the “reliability.” He believes that if Mercedes is not reliable in the test, they will get a very limited mileage to learn. This will prevent the team from measuring the car’s absolute reliability too much. This year, the F1 cars built under the new technical regulations are very reliable and need more mileage than three days to recognize the issues.
The second impact on the performance due to the testing shortage is the use of the limited time as efficiently as possible. Mike Eliott believes that now they will have to learn as much as they can in order to work out how to get the most performance out of the car. There is also the need to feed into the next developments.